Genshiken Nidaime — How’d I Miss This Announcement?

With the recent buzz over Del Rey’s exit from the manga market as Kodansha U.S.A. replaces them, I suddenly became aware of a huge announcement made two weeks ago of a new Kodansha title that really has me excited. That title is Genshiken Nidaime, the sequel to one of my favorite manga series, Genshiken.

Wow! That’s what you get when you miss meetings I guess, eh? ^_~ Well, the last few weeks have been nuts for me so it doesn’t surprise me that I missed the announcement.

Genshiken Nidaime is the perfect title for Kodansha U.S.A. to show how well they will treat their manga here. For starters, they can simultaneously publish the chapters online (hopefully Random House will have something to accomplish this) so we fans can read them legally. Then, when the tankoubon is released in Japan, I want to see the U.S. volume released over here. Further, I want the Japanese honorifics to be retained in the U.S. release and translator notes published.

As to the series itself, I like how it will apparently pick up where Genshiken left off with the graduation of Saki and Sasahara. The ad image (see below) shows Ohno and Ogiue returning and Suzie becoming a main character. I’d guess that Kuchiki would be back for his senior year and that we might see Sasahara’s little sister as well. Assuming Kio-sensei decides to keep Sasahara and Ogiue as a couple, I’d expect to see Sasahara in a supporting role. The other members of Genshiken I’d expect to see in more cameo rolls, which is what most of them were reduced to toward the end of Genshiken.

When Kio-sensei wrote Genshiken, the chapters were published monthly in Afternoon magazine. As such, the four years of college for Saki and Sasahara were encapsulated in nine volumes of manga. Most chapters covered the specific month they were published in, which is why time passes so quickly in the manga. I wonder if Kio-sensei will continue that practice, which would mean that Ohno would be gone after twelve chapters. Frankly, I’d like to see him adapt a writing style to just write stories and let time pass more slowly, thus giving us more Genshiken goodness, assuming that goodness still exists.

I’ll be keeping an eye open for this title for sure. ^_^